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Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

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Property/DIY

Renting with child(ren)

19 replies

FutureMum · 26/05/2013 14:38

We are relocating due to job change to avoid long-ish and expensive commute into a city where property rental is expensive. Our budget is not big and we want to avoid a couple of rough areas, so I thought a flat would be more affordable. But we have a young daughter and we've not been allowed to view lots of flats - estate agents turn us down despite the fact that the flat is affordable and we are working, because we have one (young and well behaved) child.
Has anyone else had this problem before? Is it something to do with the lease of the house? I am concerned about this and it's causing us lots of stress...

OP posts:

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Theselittlelightsofmine · 26/05/2013 14:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

forevergreek · 26/05/2013 14:46

Had no problems. We live in London renting with with 2 toddlers.

Mandy21 · 26/05/2013 15:23

I've never heard this, in fact I think most landlords would welcome families with children - less likely to be loud / badly behaved / do a runner. Also I'd have thought you're more likely to be mdeium / long term tenants because you will want to avoid too much disruption for children etc. We had absolutely no problem when we were looking for rental properties - with 3 year old toddler twins and pregnant!

Clargo55 · 26/05/2013 15:45

I rent property and we cannot rent our leasehold flats to anyone with children under the age of 18. It breaches our leasehold and building insurance. It is a really annoying situation, we have met many lovely familys we simply cannont rent to.

forevergreek · 26/05/2013 16:39

Clargo- how does that work? Surely it's discrimination. What happens if your tenants become pregnant? Do they get thrown out?

Clargo55 · 26/05/2013 17:43

Yes exactly that. Our last tenant told us they were expecting a baby and we had to serve them their notice. I'm not to sure about the legalities of it all as mainly OH deals with it all. But I do read correspondence from our property management company and it stipulates that it is a breech of the leasehold. We called them as soon as our tenant told us their news, they confirmed that they had to leave or the owners of the lease could take back ownership of our flat due to breeching the rules.

HTH.

Clargo55 · 26/05/2013 17:50

Just found our lastest review letter for you:

'Children

You are also reminded that children at the scheme are contrary to the terms of the lease and a breach of the planning obligations for the development.'

forevergreek · 26/05/2013 17:50

Very bizarre. I don't think we even told our landlord until first baby was around 10 months as asked if we could add locks to kitchen cupboards. Mind you, we have lived here 4 years now and he just emails maybe once a year to see if alls ok, he has never checked property as lives abroad.

Our lease def says no/ ask about pets, nothing about babies.

It is a very modern apartment/ glass walls/ white furniture etc so not exactly child friendly image but works well

forevergreek · 26/05/2013 17:51

I suppose it just seems mean to make an expecting couple potentially homeless

expatinscotland · 26/05/2013 17:56

'No children' v., v. common in many places. And not just flats.

Perfectly legal, not considered discrimination.

specialsubject · 26/05/2013 18:40

sounds like some blocks of flats ban kids.

kids are not normally an issue for landlords, especially young children. But if the lease of the flat forbids it, end of.

Clargo55 · 26/05/2013 21:15

Forever
Our tenants told us straight away as they thought they had to (only recently moved to the UK from Romania so unsure of rules/laws). Asking them to leave was awful. We tried to do as much for them as possible. We gave them 2 months notice, excellent references, full deposit back plus extra for maintaining great condition of property. We also enlisted the help of our estate agent to find them somewhere else. Wish we could have let them stay they were the best tenants we have had. They are really happy now and glad they moved into a bigger place with garden etc. But it was really tough for them financially to begin with. I wish OH knew more when he bought his little bachelor pad but now were stuck with it. We tried to sell it after we purchased somewhere together but the market has crashed to £40k less than he paid, putting us in negative equity.

Littleolivetree · 26/05/2013 22:59

We are landlords and would not allow children.

expatinscotland · 27/05/2013 13:34

Lots of LL's don't, and again not just in flats.

RenterNomad · 27/05/2013 19:38

I hadn't heard of leaseholders' forbidding children!

As for why LLs who are not tied in this way might do this,.they might be calculating that wear and tear will be greater with someone home more, esp. if one of those someones is a child. It's worrying if lots have calculated that they can afford, market-wise, to turn families away.

Another calculation might be on the "student"/flatshare market. In this case, wear and tear would be weighed against getting rent for every single room, including reception(s). Are there lots of students in your area, OP?

FutureMum · 28/05/2013 09:10

Yes, there are. But most student properties come marketed as 'student lets' and I am going for the others.
I would have expected there could be a little more wear and tear when you have children, but as we have only one and she is still young, there is only so much we can do! And I thought any damages would be picked up at inspection and reimbursed from a hefty deposit? We also have references as we have rented before (including the last year with little one, when our rented flat is now in a better condition than we arrived!) So frustrating!!

OP posts:

forevergreek · 28/05/2013 09:17

I would be a bit annoyed if children are allowed but landlord refused tbh.

Our landlord has 8 properties and we are the only ones with children. Apparently ours is the tidiest and least maintenance out of them all. Yes we have children but house spotless. Food only eaten at table, no dirty handprints anywhere, Shoes off, toys all hidden in cupboards when not used. Tbh it still looks like a Showhome even though everything is white or glass

Littleolivetree · 28/05/2013 09:33

Well I agree to some extent, however I think on the whole families with children will pose a higher risk than those without I think the difference is that when its your house you are letting you will feel more worried about wear and tear.

RenterNomad · 28/05/2013 11:33

I suppose the bottom line is the bottom line. This is how some LLs think, and they can afford to do it, as there are enough potential tenants for them to be able to exclude whatever category they want to, without losing any money over it. Very disappointing.

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